Out of curiosity I tried to find videos of Detroit from 10 years ago. This one specifically highlighting the ones that were vacant or very visibly vacant.
• Video Link
It turns out a vast majority of the buildings pictured have been restored, some as recently as last year like
the Metropolitan Building now reopening as Element Hotel.
The
Broderick Tower is now home to apartments.
The
David Whitney Building next door is half hotel half apartment building.
Pretty much
all the buildings around Capitol Park have been restored, with the
Farwell expected to be finished pretty soon.
And there's numerous other smaller buildings that are filled with resturants and retail as well as some buildings that were already occupied 10 years ago, but got updated and are now at max capacity (notably with a lot of the properties Dan Gilbert has bought).
The only building that I think is still untouched is the Park Avenue building. It
changed owners less than a year ago and there are plans to put in residential units, but like with other Detroit projects it's been a slow start.
Of course, there's a few buildings in the video that were demolished over the last 10 years, notably the uniquely shaped Lafayette Building. It was leveled in 2010. Had it only lasted a few more years and its fate could have been entirely different.
• Video Link
In addition to the restorations, a number of downtown parks have seen improvements, the QLine was built, and there's been lots of new construction on the periphery of downtown such as in Corktown, Brush Park, and Lafayette Park. Extending out from there, Midtown and New Center are also seeing more new projects.
But there's still a lot more to do, namely, actually connecting downtown with the rest of the city. The QLine is hopefully a start, but the city needs a real plan for mass transit to continue this momentum. For the neighborhoods, crime and education is still an issue and will forever be a detriment to retaining a stable population until it's dealt with. Jobs aren't so much an issue now as they were in years past (the city unemployment rate has been going down), but going back to education, in the long-term, there's nothing really pointing Detroit away from manufacturing. The car industry is still king and that still makes the city vulnerable to fluctuations with car sales or any sweeping changes to the auto industry. My hope is that other industries can grow and be cultivated in Detroit before any dire situation like that happens.